1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to precision tools and accessories, and precision tool sets, for use in securing a workpiece in a particular orientation so that milling, grinding, drilling, and/or other machining work may be properly and accurately performed thereon.
More particularly, the invention relates to a plurality of individual precision tools which may be selectively employed either independently or in combination with each other so as to properly hold and orient a workpiece for the performance of work thereon by means of, for example, power-driven machines in a machine shop.
The terminology "precision tools" and "precision tool accessories" as employed herein is intended to embrace a variety of workpiece holding implements, such as, for example, sine plates, magnetic sine plates, compound sine plates, magnetic compound sine plates, sine vises, parallels, small and large precision vises, angle plates, compound angle plates, vee blocks, cubes, and indexing and non-indexing whirl-gigs; as well as a variety of other known precision tool constructions.
The terminology "machining work" as employed herein is intended to connote a variety of various finishing and shaping operations, such as milling, grinding, drilling, etc., to be accurately performed on a workpiece.
2. Description of Relevant Art
There are a great many diversified fields of production which rely upon precision tools to properly hold and orient a workpiece upon which very fine and precise finishing or shaping operations must be accurately performed to ensure precisely accurate shapes and dimensions of the finished product. Such diversified fields of production include, for example, the production of automotive parts, aircraft parts and electrical parts; as well as the production of a veritable plethora of other products which require the use of some type of machinery during the course of manufacturing operations. The precision tools and accessories are ofttimes employed not only to hold and orient a product itself, but also to hold and orient a workpiece which will ultimately be employed in machinery used for various operations in manufacturing a product. Accordingly, there has developed a very widespread need for reliable and accurate precision tools and accessories which are convenient to use and are as inexpensive as possible.
Heretofore, various disadvantages have been associated with precision tools and precision tool accessories commonly employed in machine shops. The precision tools and accessories themselves must be very precisely and accurately finished from quality materials, and are thus quite costly. Further, the expensive precision tools and accessories have heretofore been commercially available on only an individual basis, resulting in considerable expense to the purchaser if he wishes to equip his machine shop or operation sufficiently. Thus, because a substantially large number of different precision tools and accessories are required to provide the machine tool operator or other user with maximum flexibility and versatility in properly orienting and securing workpieces for work to be performed thereon, one of the major disadvantages associated with known precision tools and accessories has been the great expense involved in purchasing what would be deemed as a substantially complete set of such precision tools and accessories.
If the machine shop operator or other user is limited, in view of the aforementioned expense considerations, to only a select few of the many commercially-available expensive precision tools and accessories, there will be a resultant substantial increase in the set-up time required for performing various machining operations upon a workpiece to be shaped or finished. In this connection, it is well known that set-up time, viz., the time required for accurately orienting and securing a workpiece in a particular position for machining work to be performed thereon, ofttimes substantially exceeds the time spent in actually performing the machining work itself. Thus, if the machine tool operator or other user is poorly equipped with precision tools and accessories due to expense considerations, an inordinate amount of valuable production time will be consumed merely in setting up the workpiece for the work to be performed thereon.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, even if a particular machine shop is very well equipped with a large number of conventional precision tools and accessories, the above-discussed set-up time may still be inordinately extensive if the machine shop operator is required to accurately orient a workpiece for very particular machining work, such as grinding or drilling of compound angles, etc. Known precision tools have generally failed to provide the flexibility and versatility required to enable accurate positioning of the workpiece in a relatively short time, and have generally required the use of a large number of clamps, angle plates, etc., the positioning of which increases the set-up time required in properly orienting and securing the workpiece for machining work.
Yet another shortcoming associated with known precision tools and accessories is the possibility that such tools or accessories themselves may adversely interfere with machining operations being performed upon the workpiece oriented thereon, thus resulting in possible damage to the workpiece and/or the expensive precision tools and accessories themselves.
Illustrative of known precision tools constructions are: the "SINE PLATE ASSEMBLY" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,934 issued in 1969 to Schmidt; the "ADAPTOR FOR MACHINE TOOL FIXTURE" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,012 issued in 1978 to La Rocco; and the "ADAPTOR FOR MACHINE TOOL FIXTURE" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,239 issued in 1979 to La Rocco.
The present invention provides precision tools and accessories, and precision tool sets, having a variety of desirable features which effectively overcome the above-described disadvantages and shortcomings attendant known precision tools. The precision tools and precision tools sets in accordance with the invention provide maximum flexibility and versatility in orienting and holding a workpiece for machining work to be accurately performed thereon, while at the same time substantially reducing the great expense heretofore associated with known precision tools and accessories.